<h1 id="title">A Funeral Elegy</h1>

<section id="poemintro">
TO MASTER JOHN PETER<br>of Bowhay in Devon, Esq.<br>The love I bore to your brother, and will do to his memory, hath crav'd from me this last duty of a friend; I am herein but a second to the privilege of Truth, who can warrant more in his behalf than I undertook to deliver. Exercise in this kind I will little affect, and am less addicted to, but there must be miracle in that labor which, to witness my remembrance to this departed gentleman, I would not willingly undergo. Yet whatsoever is here done, is done to him, and to him only. For whom and whose sake I will not forget to remember any friendly respects to you, or to any of those that have lov'd him for himself, and himself for his deserts.<br>W. S.
</section>

<section class="stanza">
  <p>Since Time, and his predestinated end,</p>
  <p>Abridg’d the circuit of his hopeful days,</p>
  <p>Whiles both his Youth and Virtue did intend</p>
  <p>The good endeavors of deserving praise,</p>
  <p>What memorable monument can last</p>
  <p>Whereon to build his never-blemish’d name</p>
  <p>But his own worth, wherein his life was grac’d—</p>
  <p>Sith as [that] ever he maintain’d the same?</p>
  <p>Oblivion in the darkest day to come,</p>
  <p>When sin shall tread on merit in the dust,</p>
  <p>Cannot rase out the lamentable tomb</p>
  <p>Of his short-liv’d deserts; but still they must,</p>
  <p>Even in the hearts and memories of men,</p>
  <p>Claim fit Respect, that they, in every limb</p>
  <p>Rememb’ring what he was, with comfort then</p>
  <p>May pattern out one truly good, by him.</p>
  <p>For he was truly good, if honest care</p>
  <p>Of harmless conversation may commend</p>
  <p>A life free from such stains as follies are,</p>
  <p>Ill recompensed only in his end.</p>
  <p>Nor can the tongue of him who lov’d him least</p>
  <p>(If there can be minority of love</p>
  <p>To one superlative above the rest</p>
  <p>Of many men in steady faith) reprove</p>
  <p>His constant temper, in the equal weight</p>
  <p>Of thankfulness and kindness: Truth doth leave</p>
  <p>Sufficient proof, he was in every right</p>
  <p>As kind to give, as thankful to receive.</p>
  <p>The curious eye of a quick-brain’d survey</p>
  <p>Could scantly find a mote amidst the sun</p>
  <p>Of his too-short’ned days, or make a prey</p>
  <p>Of any faulty errors he had done—</p>
  <p>Not that he was above the spleenful sense</p>
  <p>And spite of malice, but for that he had</p>
  <p>Warrant enough in his own innocence</p>
  <p>Against the sting of some in nature bad.</p>
  <p>Yet who is he so absolutely blest</p>
  <p>That lives encompass’d in a mortal frame,</p>
  <p>Sometime in reputation not oppress’d</p>
  <p>By some in nothing famous but defame?</p>
  <p>Such in the By-path and the Ridgeway lurk</p>
  <p>That leads to ruin, in a smooth pretense</p>
  <p>Of what they do to be a special work</p>
  <p>Of singleness, not tending to offense;</p>
  <p>Whose very virtues are, not to detract</p>
  <p>Whiles hope remains of gain (base fee of slaves),</p>
  <p>Despising chiefly men in fortunes wrack’d—</p>
  <p>But death to such gives unrememb’red graves.</p>
  <p>Now therein liv’d he happy, if to be</p>
  <p>Free from detraction happiness it be.</p>
  <p>His younger years gave comfortable hope</p>
  <p>To hope for comfort in his riper youth,</p>
  <p>Which, harvest-like, did yield again the crop</p>
  <p>Of Education, better’d in his truth.</p>
  <p>Those noble twins of heaven-infused races,</p>
  <p>Learning and Wit, refined in their kind</p>
  <p>Did jointly both, in their peculiar graces,</p>
  <p>Enrich the curious temple of his mind;</p>
  <p>Indeed a temple, in whose precious white</p>
  <p>Sat Reason by Religion oversway’d,</p>
  <p>Teaching his other senses, with delight,</p>
  <p>How Piety and Zeal should be obey’d—</p>
  <p>Not fruitlessly in prodigal expense</p>
  <p>Wasting his best of time, but so content</p>
  <p>With Reason’s golden Mean to make defense</p>
  <p>Against the assault of youth’s encouragement;</p>
  <p>As not the tide of this surrounding age</p>
  <p>(When now his father’s death had freed his will)</p>
  <p>Could make him subject to the drunken rage</p>
  <p>Of such whose only glory is their ill.</p>
  <p>He from the happy knowledge of the wise</p>
  <p>Draws virtue to reprove secured fools</p>
  <p>And shuns the glad sleights of ensnaring vice</p>
  <p>To spend his spring of days in sacred schools.</p>
  <p>Here gave he diet to the sick desires</p>
  <p>That day by day assault the weaker man,</p>
  <p>And with fit moderation still retires</p>
  <p>From what doth batter virtue now and then.</p>
  <p>But that I not intend in full discourse</p>
  <p>To progress out his life, I could display</p>
  <p>A good man in each part exact and force</p>
  <p>The common voice to warrant what I say.</p>
  <p>For if his fate and heaven had decreed</p>
  <p>That full of days he might have liv’d to see</p>
  <p>The grave in peace, the times that should succeed</p>
  <p>Had been best-speaking witnesses with me;</p>
  <p>Whose conversation so untouch’d did move</p>
  <p>Respect most in itself, as who would scan</p>
  <p>His honesty and worth, by them might prove</p>
  <p>He was a kind, true, perfect gentleman—</p>
  <p>Not in the outside of disgraceful folly,</p>
  <p>Courting opinion with unfit disguise,</p>
  <p>Affecting fashions, nor addicted wholly</p>
  <p>To unbeseeming blushless vanities,</p>
  <p>But suiting so his habit and desire</p>
  <p>As that his Virtue was his best Attire.</p>
  <p>Not in the waste of many idle words</p>
  <p>Car’d he to be heard talk, nor in the float</p>
  <p>Of fond conceit, such as this age affords,</p>
  <p>By vain discourse upon himself to dote;</p>
  <p>For his becoming silence gave such grace</p>
  <p>To his judicious parts, as what he spake</p>
  <p>Seem’d rather answers which the wise embrace</p>
  <p>Than busy questions such as talkers make.</p>
  <p>And though his qualities might well deserve</p>
  <p>Just commendation, yet his furnish’d mind</p>
  <p>Such harmony of goodness did preserve</p>
  <p>As nature never built in better kind;</p>
  <p>Knowing the best, and therefore not presuming</p>
  <p>In knowing, but for that it was the best,</p>
  <p>Ever within himself free choice resuming</p>
  <p>Of true perfection, in a perfect breast;</p>
  <p>So that his mind and body made an inn,</p>
  <p>The one to lodge the other, both like fram’d</p>
  <p>For fair conditions, guests that soonest win</p>
  <p>Applause; in generality, well fam’d,</p>
  <p>If trim behavior, gestures mild, discreet</p>
  <p>Endeavors, modest speech, beseeming mirth,</p>
  <p>True friendship, active grace, persuasion sweet,</p>
  <p>Delightful love innated from his birth,</p>
  <p>Acquaintance unfamiliar, carriage just,</p>
  <p>Offenseless resolution, wish’d sobriety,</p>
  <p>Clean-temper’d moderation, steady trust,</p>
  <p>Unburthen’d conscience, unfeign’d piety;</p>
  <p>If these, or all of these, knit fast in one</p>
  <p>Can merit praise, then justly may we say,</p>
  <p>Not any from this frailer stage is gone</p>
  <p>Whose name is like to live a longer day—</p>
  <p>Though not in eminent courts or places great</p>
  <p>For popular concourse, yet in that soil</p>
  <p>Where he enjoy’d his birth, life, death, and seat</p>
  <p>Which now sits mourning his untimely spoil. A</p>
  <p>nd as much glory is it to be good</p>
  <p>For private persons, in their private home,</p>
  <p>As those descended from illustrious blood</p>
  <p>In public view of greatness, whence they come.</p>
  <p>Though I, rewarded with some sadder taste</p>
  <p>Of knowing shame, by feeling it have prov’d</p>
  <p>My country’s thankless misconstruction cast</p>
  <p>Upon my name and credit, both unlov’d</p>
  <p>By some whose fortunes, sunk into the wane</p>
  <p>Of plenty and desert, have strove to win</p>
  <p>Justice by wrong, and sifted to embane</p>
  <p>My reputation with a witless sin;</p>
  <p>Yet time, the father of unblushing truth,</p>
  <p>May one day lay ope malice which hath cross’d it,</p>
  <p>And right the hopes of my endangered youth,</p>
  <p>Purchasing credit in the place I lost it.</p>
  <p>Even in which place the subject of the verse</p>
  <p>(Unhappy matter of a mourning style</p>
  <p>Which now that subject’s merits doth rehearse)</p>
  <p>Had education and new being; while</p>
  <p>By fair demeanor he had won repute</p>
  <p>Amongst the all of all that lived there,</p>
  <p>For that his actions did so wholly suit</p>
  <p>With worthiness, still memorable here.</p>
  <p>The many hours till the day of doom</p>
  <p>Will not consume his life and hapless end,</p>
  <p>For should he lie obscur’d without a tomb,</p>
  <p>Time would to time his honesty commend;</p>
  <p>Whiles parents to their children will make known,</p>
  <p>And they to their posterity impart,</p>
  <p>How such a man was sadly overthrown</p>
  <p>By a hand guided by a cruel heart,</p>
  <p>Whereof as many as shall hear that sadness</p>
  <p>Will blame the one’s hard fate, the other’s madness;</p>
  <p>Whiles such as do recount that tale of woe,</p>
  <p>Told by remembrance of the wisest heads,</p>
  <p>Will in the end conclude the matter so,</p>
  <p>As they will all go weeping to their beds.</p>
  <p>For when the world lies winter’d in the storms</p>
  <p>Of fearful consummation, and lays down</p>
  <p>Th’ unsteady change of his fantastic forms,</p>
  <p>Expecting ever to be overthrown;</p>
  <p>When the proud height of much affected sin</p>
  <p>Shall ripen to a head, and in that pride</p>
  <p>End in the miseries it did begin</p>
  <p>And fall amidst the glory of his tide;</p>
  <p>Then in a book where every work is writ</p>
  <p>Shall this man’s actions be reveal’d, to show</p>
  <p>The gainful fruit of well-employed wit,</p>
  <p>Which paid to heaven the debt that it did owe.</p>
  <p>Here shall be reckon’d up the constant faith,</p>
  <p>Never untrue, where once he love profess’d;</p>
  <p>Which is a miracle in men, one saith,</p>
  <p>Long sought though rarely found, and he is best</p>
  <p>Who can make friendship, in those times of change,</p>
  <p>Admired more for being firm than strange.</p>
  <p>When those weak houses of our brittle flesh</p>
  <p>Shall ruin’d be by death, our grace and strength,</p>
  <p>Youth, memory and shape that made us fresh</p>
  <p>Cast down, and utterly decay’d at length;</p>
  <p>When all shall turn to dust from whence we came</p>
  <p>And we low-level’d in a narrow grave,</p>
  <p>What can we leave behind us but a name,</p>
  <p>Which, by a life well led, may honor have?</p>
  <p>Such honor, O thou youth untimely lost,</p>
  <p>Thou didst deserve and hast; for though thy soul</p>
  <p>Hath took her flight to a diviner coast,</p>
  <p>Yet here on earth thy fame lives ever whole,</p>
  <p>In every heart seal’d up, in every tongue</p>
  <p>Fit matter to discourse, no day prevented</p>
  <p>That pities not thy sad and sudden wrong,</p>
  <p>Of all alike beloved and lamented.</p>
  <p>And I here to thy memorable worth,</p>
  <p>In this last act of friendship, sacrifice</p>
  <p>My love to thee, which I could not set forth</p>
  <p>In any other habit of disguise.</p>
  <p>Although I could not learn, whiles yet thou wert,</p>
  <p>To speak the language of a servile breath,</p>
  <p>My truth stole from my tongue into my heart,</p>
  <p>Which shall not thence be sund’red, but in death.</p>
  <p>And I confess my love was too remiss</p>
  <p>That had not made thee know how much I priz’d thee,</p>
  <p>But that mine error was, as yet it is,</p>
  <p>To think love best in silence: for I siz’d thee</p>
  <p>By what I would have been, not only ready</p>
  <p>In telling I was thine, but being so,</p>
  <p>By some effect to show it. He is steady</p>
  <p>Who seems less than he is in open show.</p>
  <p>Since then I still reserv’d to try the worst</p>
  <p>Which hardest fate and time thus can lay on me.</p>
  <p>T’ enlarge my thoughts was hindered at first,</p>
  <p>While thou hadst life; I took this task upon me,</p>
  <p>To register with mine unhappy pen</p>
  <p>Such duties as it owes to thy desert,</p>
  <p>And set thee as a president to men,</p>
  <p>And limn thee to the world but as thou wert—</p>
  <p>Not hir’d, as heaven can witness in my soul,</p>
  <p>By vain conceit, to please such ones as know it,</p>
  <p>Nor servile to be lik’d, free from control,</p>
  <p>Which, pain to many men, I do not owe it.</p>
  <p>But here I trust I have discharged now</p>
  <p>(Fair lovely branch too soon cut off) to thee,</p>
  <p>My constant and irrefragable vow,</p>
  <p>As, had it chanc’d, thou mightst have done to me—</p>
  <p>But that no merit strong enough of mine</p>
  <p>Had yielded store to thy well-abled quill</p>
  <p>Whereby t’enroll my name, as this of thine,</p>
  <p>How s’ere enriched by thy plenteous skill.</p>
  <p>Here, then, I offer up to memory</p>
  <p>The value of my talent, precious man,</p>
  <p>Whereby if thou live to posterity,</p>
  <p>Though’t be not as I would, ’tis as I can:</p>
  <p>In minds from whence endeavor doth proceed,</p>
  <p>A ready will is taken for the deed.</p>
  <p>Yet ere I take my longest last farewell</p>
  <p>From thee, fair mark of sorrow, let me frame</p>
  <p>Some ampler work of thank, wherein to tell</p>
  <p>What more thou didst deserve than in thy name,</p>
  <p>And free thee from the scandal of such senses</p>
  <p>As in the rancor of unhappy spleen</p>
  <p>Measure thy course of life, with false pretenses</p>
  <p>Comparing by thy death what thou hast been.</p>
  <p>So in his mischiefs is the world accurs’d:</p>
  <p>It picks out matter to inform the worst.</p>
  <p>The willful blindness that hoodwinks the eyes</p>
  <p>Of men enwrapped in an earthy veil</p>
  <p>Makes them most ignorantly exercise</p>
  <p>And yield to humor when it doth assail,</p>
  <p>Whereby the candle and the body’s light</p>
  <p>Darkens the inward eyesight of the mind,</p>
  <p>Presuming still it sees, even in the night</p>
  <p>Of that same ignorance which makes them blind.</p>
  <p>Hence conster they with corrupt commentaries,</p>
  <p>Proceeding from a nature as corrupt,</p>
  <p>The text of malice, which so often varies</p>
  <p>As ’tis by seeming reason underpropp’d.</p>
  <p>O, whither tends the lamentable spite</p>
  <p>Of this world’s teenful apprehension,</p>
  <p>Which understands all things amiss, whose light</p>
  <p>Shines not amidst the dark of their dissension?</p>
  <p>True ’tis, this man, whiles yet he was a man,</p>
  <p>Sooth’d not the current of besotted fashion,</p>
  <p>Nor could digest, as some loose mimics can,</p>
  <p>An empty sound of overweening passion,</p>
  <p>So much to be made servant to the base</p>
  <p>And sensual aptness of disunion’d vices,</p>
  <p>To purchase commendation by disgrace,</p>
  <p>Whereto the world and heat of sin entices.</p>
  <p>But in a safer contemplation,</p>
  <p>Secure in what he knew, he ever chose</p>
  <p>The ready way to commendation,</p>
  <p>By shunning all invitements strange, of those</p>
  <p>Whose illness is, the necessary praise</p>
  <p>Must wait upon their actions; only rare</p>
  <p>In being rare in shame (which strives to raise</p>
  <p>Their name by doing what they do not care),</p>
  <p>As if the free commission of their ill</p>
  <p>Were even as boundless as their prompt desires;</p>
  <p>Only like lords, like subjects to their will,</p>
  <p>Which their fond dotage ever more admires.</p>
  <p>He was not so: but in a serious awe,</p>
  <p>Ruling the little ordered commonwealth</p>
  <p>Of his own self, with honor to the law</p>
  <p>That gave peace to his bread, bread to his health;</p>
  <p>Which ever he maintain’d in sweet content</p>
  <p>And pleasurable rest, wherein he joy’d</p>
  <p>A monarchy of comfort’s government,</p>
  <p>Never until his last to be destroy’d.</p>
  <p>For in the Vineyard of heaven-favored learning</p>
  <p>Where he was double-honor’d in degree,</p>
  <p>His observation and discreet discerning</p>
  <p>Had taught him in both fortunes to be free;</p>
  <p>Whence now retir’d home, to a home indeed</p>
  <p>The home of his condition and estate,</p>
  <p>He well provided ’gainst the hand of need,</p>
  <p>Whence young men sometime grow unfortunate;</p>
  <p>His disposition, by the bonds of unity,</p>
  <p>So fast’ned to his reason that it strove</p>
  <p>With understanding’s grave immunity</p>
  <p>To purchase from all hearts a steady love;</p>
  <p>Wherein not any one thing comprehends</p>
  <p>Proportionable note of what he was,</p>
  <p>Than that he was so constant to his friends</p>
  <p>As he would no occasion overpass</p>
  <p>Which might make known his unaffected care,</p>
  <p>In all respects of trial, to unlock</p>
  <p>His bosom and his store, which did declare</p>
  <p>That Christ was his, and he was Friendship’s Rock:</p>
  <p>A Rock of Friendship figured in his name,</p>
  <p>Fore-shewing what he was, and what should be,</p>
  <p>Most true presage; and he discharg’d the same</p>
  <p>In every act of perfect amity—</p>
  <p>Though in the complemental phrase of words</p>
  <p>He never was addicted to the vain</p>
  <p>Of boast, such as the common breath affords;</p>
  <p>He was in use most fast, in tongue most plain,</p>
  <p>Nor amongst all those virtues that forever</p>
  <p>Adorn’d his reputation will be found</p>
  <p>One greater than his Faith, which did persever,</p>
  <p>Where once it was protested, alway sound.</p>
  <p>Hence sprung the deadly fuel that reviv’d</p>
  <p>The rage which wrought his end, for had he been</p>
  <p>Slacker in love, he had been longer liv’d</p>
  <p>And not oppress’d by wrath’s unhappy sin—</p>
  <p>By wrath’s unhappy sin, which unadvis’d</p>
  <p>Gave death for free good will, and wounds for love.</p>
  <p>Pity it was that blood had not been priz’d</p>
  <p>At higher rate, and reason set above</p>
  <p>Most unjust choler, which untimely</p>
  <p>Drew Destruction on itself; and most unjust,</p>
  <p>Robb’d virtue of a follower so true</p>
  <p>As time can boast of, both for love and trust:</p>
  <p>So henceforth all (great glory to his blood)</p>
  <p>Shall be but seconds to him, being good.</p>
  <p>The wicked end their honor with their sin</p>
  <p>In death, which only then the good begin.</p>
  <p>Lo, here a lesson by experience taught</p>
  <p>For men whose pure simplicity hath drawn</p>
  <p>Their trust to be betray’d by being caught</p>
  <p>Within the snares of making truth a pawn;</p>
  <p>Whiles it, not doubting whereinto it enters,</p>
  <p>Without true proof and knowledge of a friend,</p>
  <p>Sincere in singleness of heart, adventers</p>
  <p>To give fit cause, ere love begin to end:</p>
  <p>His unfeign’d friendship where it least was sought,</p>
  <p>Him to a fatal timeless ruin brought;</p>
  <p>Whereby the life that purity adorn’d</p>
  <p>With real merit, by this sudden end</p>
  <p>Is in the mouth of some in manner scorn’d,</p>
  <p>Made questionable, for they do intend,</p>
  <p>According to the tenor of the saw</p>
  <p>Mistook, if not observ’d (writ long ago</p>
  <p>When men were only led by Reason’s law),</p>
  <p>That "Such as is the end, the life proves so."</p>
  <p>Thus he, who to the universal lapse</p>
  <p>Gave sweet redemption, off’ring up his blood</p>
  <p>To conquer death by death, and loose the traps</p>
  <p>Of hell, even in the triumph that it stood:</p>
  <p>He thus, for that his guiltless life was spilt</p>
  <p>By death, which was made subject to the curse,</p>
  <p>Might in like manner be reprov’d of guilt</p>
  <p>In his pure life, for that his end was worse.</p>
  <p>But O far be it, our unholy lips</p>
  <p>Should so profane the deity above</p>
  <p>As thereby to ordain revenging whips</p>
  <p>Against the day of Judgment and of Love.</p>
  <p>The hand that lends us honor in our days</p>
  <p>May shorten when it please, and justly take</p>
  <p>Our honor from us many sundry ways,</p>
  <p>As best becomes that wisdom did us make.</p>
  <p>The second brother, who was next begot</p>
  <p>Of all that ever were begotten yet,</p>
  <p>Was by a hand in vengeance rude and hot</p>
  <p>Sent innocent to be in heaven set—</p>
  <p>Whose fame the angels in melodious choirs</p>
  <p>Still witness to the world. Then why should he,</p>
  <p>Well-profited in excellent desires,</p>
  <p>Be more rebuk’d, who had like destiny?</p>
  <p>Those saints before the everlasting throne</p>
  <p>Who sit with crowns of glory on their heads,</p>
  <p>Wash’d white in blood, from earth hence have not gone</p>
  <p>All to their joys in quiet on their beds,</p>
  <p>But tasted of the sour-bitter scourge</p>
  <p>Of torture and affliction ere they gained</p>
  <p>Those blessings which their sufferance did urge,</p>
  <p>Whereby the grace fore-promis’d they attained.</p>
  <p>Let then the false suggestions of the froward,</p>
  <p>Building large castles in the empty air,</p>
  <p>By suppositions fond and thoughts untoward</p>
  <p>(Issues of discontent and sick despair)</p>
  <p>Rebound gross arguments upon their heart</p>
  <p>That may disprove their malice, and confound</p>
  <p>Uncivil loose opinions which insert</p>
  <p>Their souls into the roll that doth unsound</p>
  <p>Betraying policies, and show their brains,</p>
  <p>Unto their shame, ridiculous; whose scope</p>
  <p>Is envy, whose endeavors fruitless pains,</p>
  <p>In nothing surely prosperous, but hope—</p>
  <p>And that same hope, so lame, so unprevailing,</p>
  <p>It buries self-conceit in weak opinion;</p>
  <p>Which being cross’d, gives matter of bewailing</p>
  <p>Their vain designs, on whom want hath dominion.</p>
  <p>Such, and of such condition, may devise</p>
  <p>Which way to wound with defamation’s spirit</p>
  <p>(Close-lurking whisper’s hidden forgeries)</p>
  <p>His taintless goodness, his desertful merit.</p>
  <p>But whiles the minds of men can judge sincerely,</p>
  <p>Upon assured knowledge, his repute</p>
  <p>And estimation shall be rumor’d clearly</p>
  <p>In equal worth—time shall to time renew ’t.</p>
  <p>The Grave-that in his ever-empty womb</p>
  <p>Forever closes up the unrespected</p>
  <p>Who, when they die, die all—shall not entomb</p>
  <p>His pleading best perfections as neglected.</p>
  <p>They to his notice in succeeding years</p>
  <p>Shall speak for him when he shall lie below;</p>
  <p>When nothing but his memory appears</p>
  <p>Of what he was, then shall his virtues grow.</p>
  <p>His being but a private man in rank</p>
  <p>(And yet not rank’d beneath a gentleman)</p>
  <p>Shall not abridge the commendable thank</p>
  <p>Which wise posterity shall give him then;</p>
  <p>For Nature, and his therein happy Fate.</p>
  <p>Ordain’d that by his quality of mind</p>
  <p>T’ ennoble that best part, although his state</p>
  <p>Were to a lower blessedness confin’d.</p>
  <p>Blood, pomp, state, honor, glory and command,</p>
  <p>Without fit ornaments of disposition,</p>
  <p>Are in themselves but heathenish and profane,</p>
  <p>And much more peaceful is a mean condition</p>
  <p>Which, underneath the roof of safe content,</p>
  <p>Feeds on the bread of rest, and takes delight</p>
  <p>To look upon the labors it hath spent</p>
  <p>For its own sustenance, both day and night;</p>
  <p>Whiles others, plotting which way to be great,</p>
  <p>How to augment their portion and ambition,</p>
  <p>Do toil their giddy brains, and ever sweat</p>
  <p>For popular applause and power’s commission.</p>
  <p>But one in honors, like a sealed dove</p>
  <p>Whose inward eyes are dimm’d with dignity,</p>
  <p>Does think most safety doth remain above,</p>
  <p>And seeks to be secure by mounting high:</p>
  <p>Whence, when he falls, who did erewhile aspire,</p>
  <p>Falls deeper down, for that he climbed higher.</p>
  <p>Now men who in a lower region live</p>
  <p>Exempt from danger of authority</p>
  <p>Have fittest times in Reason’s rules to thrive,</p>
  <p>Not vex’d with envy of priority,</p>
  <p>And those are much more noble in the mind</p>
  <p>Than many that have nobleness by kind.</p>
  <p>Birth, blood, and ancestors, are none of ours,</p>
  <p>Nor can we make a proper challenge to them,</p>
  <p>But virtues and perfections in our powers</p>
  <p>Proceed most truly from us, if we do them.</p>
  <p>Respective titles or a gracious style,</p>
  <p>With all what men in eminence possess,</p>
  <p>Are, without ornaments to praise them, vile:</p>
  <p>The beauty of the mind is nobleness.</p>
  <p>And such as have that beauty, well deserve</p>
  <p>Eternal characters, that after death</p>
  <p>Remembrance of their worth we may preserve,</p>
  <p>So that their glory die not with their breath.</p>
  <p>Else what avails it in a goodly strife</p>
  <p>Upon this face of earth here to contend,</p>
  <p>The good t’exceed the wicked in their life,</p>
  <p>Should both be like obscured in their end?</p>
  <p>Until which end, there is none rightly can</p>
  <p>Be termed happy, since the happiness</p>
  <p>Depends upon the goodness of the man,</p>
  <p>Which afterwards his praises will express.</p>
  <p>Look hither then, you that enjoy the youth</p>
  <p>Of your best days, and see how unexpected</p>
  <p>Death can betray your jollity to ruth</p>
  <p>When death you think is least to be respected!</p>
  <p>The person of this model here set out</p>
  <p>Had all that youth and happy days could give him,</p>
  <p>Yet could not all-encompass him about</p>
  <p>Against th’assault of death, who to relieve him</p>
  <p>Struck home but to the frail and mortal parts</p>
  <p>Of his humanity, but could not touch</p>
  <p>His flourishing and fair long-liv’d deserts,</p>
  <p>Above fate’s reach, his singleness was such—</p>
  <p>So that he dies but once, but doubly lives,</p>
  <p>Once in his proper self, then in his name;</p>
  <p>Predestinated Time, who all deprives,</p>
  <p>Could never yet deprive him of the same.</p>
  <p>And had the Genius which attended on him</p>
  <p>Been possibilited to keep him safe</p>
  <p>Against the rigor that hath overgone him,</p>
  <p>He had been to the public use a staff,</p>
  <p>Leading by his example in the path</p>
  <p>Which guides to doing well, wherein so few</p>
  <p>The proneness of this age to error hath</p>
  <p>Informed rightly in the courses true.</p>
  <p>As then the loss of one, whose inclination</p>
  <p>Strove to win love in general, is sad,</p>
  <p>So specially his friends, in soft compassion</p>
  <p>Do feel the greatest loss they could have had.</p>
  <p>Amongst them all, she who those nine of years</p>
  <p>Liv’d fellow to his counsels and his bed</p>
  <p>Hath the most share in loss: for I in hers</p>
  <p>Feel what distemperature this chance hath bred.</p>
  <p>The chaste embracements of conjugal love,</p>
  <p>Who in a mutual harmony consent,</p>
  <p>Are so impatient of a strange remove</p>
  <p>As meager death itself seems to lament,</p>
  <p>And weep upon those cheeks which nature fram’d</p>
  <p>To be delightful orbs in whom the force</p>
  <p>Of lively sweetness plays, so that asham’d</p>
  <p>Death often pities his unkind divorce.</p>
  <p>Such was the separation here constrain’d</p>
  <p>(Well-worthy to be termed a rudeness rather),</p>
  <p>For in his life his love was so unfeign’d</p>
  <p>As he was both an husband and a father—</p>
  <p>The one in firm affection and the other</p>
  <p>In careful providence, which ever strove</p>
  <p>With joint assistance to grace one another</p>
  <p>With every helpful furtherance of love.</p>
  <p>But since the sum of all that can be said</p>
  <p>Can be but said that "He was good"</p>
  <p>(which wholly Includes all excellence can be display’d</p>
  <p>In praise of virtue and reproach of folly).</p>
  <p>His due deserts, this sentence on him gives,</p>
  <p>"He died in life, yet in his death he lives."</p>
  <p>Now runs the method of this doleful song</p>
  <p>In accents brief to thee, O thou deceas’d!</p>
  <p>To whom those pains do only all belong</p>
  <p>As witnesses I did not love thee least.</p>
  <p>For could my worthless brain find out but how</p>
  <p>To raise thee from the sepulcher of dust,</p>
  <p>Undoubtedly thou shouldst have partage now</p>
  <p>Of life with me, and heaven be counted just</p>
  <p>If to a supplicating soul it would</p>
  <p>Give life anew, by giving life again</p>
  <p>Where life is miss’d; whereby discomfort should</p>
  <p>Right his old griefs, and former joys retain</p>
  <p>Which now with thee are leap’d into thy tomb</p>
  <p>And buried in that hollow vault of woe,</p>
  <p>Expecting yet a more severer doom</p>
  <p>Than time’s strict flinty hand will let ’em know.</p>
  <p>And now if I have level’d mine account</p>
  <p>And reckon’d up in a true measured score</p>
  <p>Those perfect graces which were ever wont</p>
  <p>To wait on thee alive, I ask no more</p>
  <p>(But shall hereafter in a poor content</p>
  <p>Immure those imputations I sustain,</p>
  <p>Learning my days of youth so to prevent</p>
  <p>As not to be cast down by them again)—</p>
  <p>Only those hopes which fate denies to grant</p>
  <p>In full possession to a captive heart</p>
  <p>Who, if it were in plenty, still would want</p>
  <p>Before it may enjoy his better part;</p>
  <p>From which detain’d, and banish’d in th’ exile</p>
  <p>Of dim misfortune, has none other prop</p>
  <p>Whereon to lean and rest itself the while</p>
  <p>But the weak comfort of the hapless, Hope.</p>
  <p>And Hope must in despite of fearful change</p>
  <p>Play in the strongest closet of my breast,</p>
  <p>Although perhaps I ignorantly range</p>
  <p>And court opinion in my deep’st unrest.</p>
  <p>But whether doth the stream of my mischance</p>
  <p>Drive me beyond myself, fast friend, soon lost,</p>
  <p>Long may thy worthiness thy name advance</p>
  <p>Amongst the virtuous and deserving most,</p>
  <p>Who herein hast forever happy prov’d:</p>
  <p>In life thou liv’dst, in death thou died’st belov’d.</p>
</section>

<h2 id="finis">FINIS.</h2>

